Until recently, Prenda Law was a lawsuit factory, suing thousands of "John Doe" defendants for allegedly violating copyright by downloading pornographic films through BitTorrent. But late last year, when a Minnesota man named Alan Cooper accused the firm of using his name without permission as the head of one of its shell companies, the firm was forced into damage control mode. At a hearing last week, the firm's senior officials invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions about Cooper's allegations.

After weeks of dodging questions about whether the "Alan Cooper" who signed documents on behalf of the shell company AF Holdings was the same Alan Cooper who has accused Prenda of identity theft, Prenda has finally taken a position on the question. In a Monday court filing for the case formally known as Ingenuity LLC v. John Doe (PDF),Prenda suggests that Cooper knew perfectly well what he was involved with. The filing implies that Cooper is lying when he says he had nothing to do with Prenda's porn-trolling operation and that the Minnesotan has gone off the deep end.

“Acting erratic”

For several years, Cooper served as the caretaker for Prenda mastermind John Steele, who owns property in Minnesota, north of the Twin Cities. Cooper lived in Steele's guest house and looked after the property while Steele was out of town.

Berry said that at first, Cooper "appeared to behave pretty responsibly toward Mr. Steele's property." He claimed that "Alan would routinely ask John how he wished he could help Mr. Steele for all the things Mr. Steele did for Alan, such as allowing him to live on the property for free."

Allegedly, one of those favors was signing paperwork for Steele's porn-trolling operations. "It was clear from their conversations and references to Mr. Steele's legal work that Alan was involved working with Mr. Steele," Berry reported. "Alan did not seem upset about this relationship, and in fact often made jokes about not having to worry about ever buying beer again due to his assisting Mr. Steele."

Berry said that on at least one occasion, Cooper asked Steele, "How's my porn company doing?"

But according to Berry, things started to go downhill in late 2011. "Alan began exhibiting unusual behavior," Berry wrote, "acting erratic, frequently threatening to hurt others. I later found out from Alan that the days he had acted very unusual were the ones in which he had not taken certain antipsychotic medications his doctor had prescribed."

By the summer of 2012, "Alan's mental state had further deteriorated and I felt very uncomfortable to be alone around him," Berry claimed. In one incident, on August 13, Cooper allegedly threatened to hurt Berry and his girlfriend. Berry said he wanted to file charges against Cooper but was dissuaded from doing so by Steele.

A text message allegedly sent to Brent Berry by Alan Cooper.

Brent Berry

To back up his allegations, Berry included screenshots of text messages he claims were sent to him by Cooper. In one, Cooper supposedly wrote, "I am sorry 4 being messed up in the head. I know how I think is not right. I want 2 be a non messed up person."

In another, reproduced above, Cooper supposedly asked Berry to accompany him to his doctor's office so he could "TELL MY DOC THE TRUTH HOW I AM."

Unreliable witness?

For this and other reasons, Prenda is urging Judge Otis Wright not to credit Cooper's testimony in deciding whether to sanction Prenda and two of its employees, attorney Paul Duffy and paralegal Angela Van Den Hemel. John Steele and Paul Hansmeier, who are widely regarded as the masterminds behind Prenda's porn-trolling operation, did not sign on to the Prenda brief.

"Contrary to his testimony, Cooper had some knowledge of and involvement with [Prenda shell company] AF Holdings," Prenda's brief argued. "And Cooper’s mental state has deteriorated to the point of making serious threats to shoot Berry, which has led to treatment for his mental illness."

Moreover, Prenda claimed, "Cooper has a financial stake in the determination of whether he signed or authorized the signature on the assignment agreements appearing over his printed name."

Cooper appeared at a March 11 hearing in Judge Wright's courtroom. At that hearing, he testified that Steele's "goal was $10,000 a day from mailing all the letters." Cooper played a threatening message Steele had left on Cooper's voicemail. But Duffy, Steele, and other Prenda officials skipped the March 11 hearing, so they did not have an opportunity to cross-examine Cooper.

Ars attempted to contact Cooper's attorney, Paul Godfread, by e-mail and Twitter, but we have not received a response. We will update this story if and when he gets back to us.